Wenche Kjæmpenes, Dean of the Faculty of Sports, Tourism and Social Work welcomed the delegation headed by the Chancellor of the University Blaine Favel, the Vice-Chair of the University's Board of Governors Lee Ahenakiw, and the Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning Patti McDougall. Several representatives of the Faculty of Sports, Tourism and Social Work such as the director, the vice-deans and the head of departments participated in the meeting.
Among the participants were faculty director Pål Markusson, who is also the Chair of the Council of UArctic and Mona Johnson, ICO of the north2north mobility program. In his introduction Pål Markusson emphasized that Uarctic’s mission of “empowering the North” has been a strong driver for UiT since its establishment in 1968.
This also seems to be the case for USaskatchewan, with its special focus on the situation of the indigenous peoples of Canada. With both institutions’ long membership in Uarctic and focus on development of the local communities and regions of the North, this should be a good platform for further cooperation in education as well as research, either under the umbrella of UArctic or as a bilateral arrangement.
Mona Johnson spoke about the great contribution of USaskatchewan in the North to North mobility program with offering free tuition waivers to incoming students. The funding of this very important program is, however, not very stable and Johnson expressed her hopes for å more solid contribution from federal or provincial level to this program in the future.